The Thing About Mediation Story

 I was reading a piece on the Portland police department, and the woes of recruiting for them this week.

The city had decided they could offer up a freebie or two.....as positive reasons to work for the city police department. So, the city offers free yoga and free mediation workshops.  

Most cops I've known in my life were Security Police.....Air Force types.  If you had mentioned yoga or mediation....they would have laughed.  What they wanted was a mini-gym in the back of the SP-building with free-weights mostly.

I won't go totally negative here...yoga is good stretching exercises, and for older folks (over forty)....there might be some minor benefit for ten minutes of yoga per day.  

The mediation business?  I'm from the south, and generally.....if you did sixty seconds of 'Jesus-help-me' praying....it was enough for the 18-hour work-day.  

The general hope here by the Portland city folks....between the yoga and mediation....maybe as a cop, you wouldn't be so quick to pull the pistol out and shoot 'Marvin' who is on some wild drug binge and about to stab three old ladies at the Piggly Wiggly check-out station.  

They may think the yoga-mediation stuff makes you feel more positive about the job, but if you asked the 700-odd members of the city police department....most would just grin and suggest a free six-pack of beer each week or some free tickets to a roller derby or wrestling event would be of equal or better value.

Portland's chief problem is that a number of people have risen to the ranks of city leadership, and they are more or less....unprepared for the real work required.  Most haven't had to deal with drugged-up juvenile behavior guys, or people who petty-crime themselves to $1,000 a week to cover their needs.

Where things stand in a decade?  It would be interesting to ask this question.  

Are Americans Poorer?

 A poll came out this past week.....around one-third of Americans see themselves poorer over the past year.

Are they really poorer?  Well....a lot of this goes to inflation, and unexpected rises in regular cost (like gas for example).

Maybe you shopped in 2020 and a grocery-cart for you was around $139.  The same grocery-cart of items today?  It probably runs around $159 to $169.  

You counter that by buying lesser quality items....shopping more by coupons/sales, and maybe you feel only slightly poorer.  Instead of buying your monthly bottle of Jack Daniels....you buy an off-brand whiskey that is 25-percent cheaper, and shake head over the lost taste.  You buy a cheaper toilet paper....that isn't the same quality but you just accept this as a result of reality.

The problem I see with this....how do things go in 2023?  That $139 shopping cart that flipped to $169....will it escalate to $189?  Will this all lead to an even worse situation?

Constitutional Chatter

 I sat and read through a piece by The Nation (the magazine) which centered on journalist Elie Mystal trashing down the U.S. Constitution.  The blunt side of the commentary?  

It's a lot of criticism over it being unfair in the world today.

I usually look at this commentary and direct a comment back....why don't you write a new draft Constitution and let us review it?

What you end up with....falls into one of three categories:

1.  It ends up being a four-hundred page document which is mostly about non-rights....than rights itself.

You know....the kind of document that you need a year-by-year review.....where you fight with various legal minds to update the document.

2.  It ends up defining things, with a undefinable description.....like saying a dog is only a four-legged creature but never going beyond that wording.  Remember the problem this week, where a potential new Supreme Court Judge could not define a woman?

3.  You end up with a legal document that cannot be explained in any high school because it's written in intellectual language that can only be clearly understood by a Master's degree lawyer.  

You know....like the original Bible held by the Catholic Church...only available in Latin.

One of the chief complaints about the current Constitution is that it lists rights in a 'holy-fashion', which is interpreted to mean that any situation can arrive with a 2022 event, and you are taking 1776 meaning to apply against the event.  People get bent out of shape with this application.  They'd rather something come out of thin air and fix the event with a Houdini-type magical-act.

For the benefit of folks....if you ever get a chance to read over the Alabama Constitution....you will find around 977 amendments attached to it.  A few are rights....a lot just say you can't take serious.  

There is an amendment which says dead animal removal in Limestone County is a county job.  You kinda wonder who was doing it before the state wrote this into the Constitution.  

There is also an amendment to cover waste removal in Jefferson County (note: the other 60 counties didn't need this for some reason).  

There is even an amendment to cover Alabama deceased state officials from collecting a salary (while dead).

My gut feeling is that if you turned these Constitutional enthusiasts loose.....you might end up with 15,000 amendments, sixty Supreme Court judges, and nine different ways to multi-vote in national elections.  

If A Guy/Gal Can't Define A Woman.....

 ....then he/she probably can't define a honky tonk.

....then he/she probably can't define liberty.

....then he/she probably can't define risky behavior.

....then he/she probably can't define 'hustle'.

....then he/she probably can't define weird.

....then he/she probably can't define a 'ball' and 'strike'.

.....then he/she probably can't define illegal alien.

.....then he/she probably can't define 'doom'.

.....then he/she probably can't define 'vagueness'.

....then he/she probably can't define the term 'capitalist'.

....then he/she probably can't define kinky.

....then he/she probably can't define the term 'courage'.  

This is a person you need to relieve of responsibility....just let them sweep the storeroom....bag groceries....run the waffle-machine....or haul gravel for a living.  

Why People Were Consumed For Trump?

 I could make this a 500-page book, but I'll leave this to four key issues:

1.  I think a quarter of the nation (left, right and independents) were fed up with fakeness.  Maybe they just woke up from the Clinton, Bush, and Obama years.....to realize what both parties offered....was a fake agenda, tied to a fake reality, that asked you to believe in some fake 'Jesus-President'.  

2.  That fire-that-guy ability.  It may have been a joke for Trump to do the reality shows and just stand there....saying 'you're fired', but I think a fair sum of Americans wanted people in the judicial system, the FBI, the Pentagon, Congress, the Senate....to be fired.  

3.  This 'Trump-door' that opened....was always reserved for Governors, House members or Senators.  A  lot of people just wanted to see the door broken down.  Maybe in some weird way.....they wouldn't mind having some retired NFL quarterback, or some PhD mad-scientist guy, or Dr Phil, or even some tobacco-chewing rodeo guy become President.

4.  Finally, some people got pure glee out of turning on CNN (for four years) and getting a minimum of twelve hours a day of anti-Trump chatter....literally destroying the brand and image of CNN in the process.  It was like running a 18-hour commercial daily, for 1460 days....about cysts.  People eventually turned the network off.  

How Time Changes Your Perception

 Back in the 1980s....I traveled around the US a good bit.  I came to some point where I considered five US cities as great places where I'd like to go and live.  Lately, I've been thinking about the five.

1.  Seattle, WA.  Downtown, based on how various locals now describe it....it's become a no-go area.  Between petty crime, homelessness, and drugs....it's bad.

Odds of me ever wanting to return/live in the Seattle area....zero.

2.  Portland, OR.  Basically, same story, with Antifa operations, nutcases, and lack of police.  

Odds of me even stopping off I-5 to fuel-up or spend a night in the city?  Zero.

3.  Monterey, CA. I had this image of Steinbeck-country when I visited.  Today?  Between taxes, ridiculous state leadership, cost-of-living....it's a zero.

4.  Aberdeen, WA.  If you review the crime statistics....even for a small town....Aberdeen is one of the highest crime locations now in the US.  People will tell you that locals know someone that has been robbed in the past two years.  

5.  Coeur d'Alene, ID.  Probably the only one that has survived on without a lot of negativity, but it's in the middle nowhere.  

Defining Women?

 I've sat over the past day or two....watching about two hours of 'interviewing' for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, for the empty seat on the Supreme Court.

When the question came up....for her to define a woman.....she just sat there.

It was like a 4th grade kid being asked to explain nuclear science or asking about the uniformity of nature (you'd have to be a first year college student to render a decent wording on that).

Eventually, she gave no real explanation.

To be honest.....there's probably six additional things that she was asked about in that period I watched.....where you were left with a mysterious 'look' on her face (like aliens had landed in Miami).

I eventually turned the TV off.  

I'm left with three explanations:

1.  She is dumber than a Spongebob Squarepants.

2.  She was told to just act dumb to all Republican questions.

3.  She is so vastly superior on intelligence, that she can't really define a woman without going into a 1,500 word answer which discusses ninety different traits of women, and fourteen different hormone 'things'.

My gut feeling?  It would be amazing to wake up in 2028, and have two of the Justices admit in some confidential situation that 'KBJ' is marginally thinking at the 3rd grade level.  

I don't think it really matters though....to have a dimwit or two on the Supreme Court.  It wouldn't even bother me if you pushed up a American Hispanic midget with an IQ of 88....to be a Justice.  It's not like they are on some NCAA football team, running the Pentagon, designing Tesla cars, or running a state prison in Oklahoma. 

Plus you have to admit this....if you stopped 100 people to ask them to define a woman....right off the bat....all the guys would respond with their hands....two boobs.  Maybe it's just NOT important to define women.